A Married Man by Sindanni Mwella
He had magic when I first met him. The kind of magic that made me, a nine year old, decide that he was the man to marry me. Now, at thirty four, with a rotund mid-body, flabby arms, and reclining hairline, am reduced to a superfluous quote “marriage is not for everyone”. Sorry. I am rushing ahead. His magic was a beautiful lanky body which he carried with the flexibility of a marionette puppet. Although we were age-mates, he towered three inches above me; a genuine product of good genes and displaying a seductive burden of shyness, which I had never encountered in my years of juvenile existence.
This story has been selected for the annual StoryTime anthology African Roar 2012, please go to the African Roar site for more info.
A Married Man was written by Sindanni Mwella.
Copyright © Sindanni Mwella 2011.
Sindanni Mwella is a Kenyan. He hates labels because they are reductionist, easily revisible and drainingly require justification. But just for the sake, he is a dramatist, a writer and a commercial lawyer. He is currently based in the coastal city of Mombasa, Kenya where be practises commercial Law with a multi-national corporation.
He lives, pays bills, and drinks Tusker, literally from the ‘written word’ be it from drafting legal documents or dabbling in creative writing. For ten years he wrote and directed plays performed by High school students for the Kenya Schools and Colleges Drama Festivals.
He is compiling a collection of short stories and will return to a long neglected Novel project when he next goes on Leave.
3 comments:
Wonderful yet tragic story Sindanni. We can only hope that in time being gay in Africa will no longer be an issue, just like it wasn't before colonisation and foreign religions made it one. Thank you for having the courage to write this story.
Thank you Anonymous. It was not easy wrting the story devoid of the politics and moral-religious connotations that go with issues of sexual orientation. I see it just as a love story, the evergreen virtue of human beings. Governments and religion and morals will not dictate/regulate/legislate the way human beings fall in love and the way they fail in love. The human condition is much larger.
A touching story indeed, and written with much sensibility.
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